Tags: superhuman

Superhuman’s Superficial Privacy Fixes Do Not Prevent It From Spying on You » Mike Industries

Mike follows up on the changes made by email startup Superhuman after his initial post:

I will say this: if you were skeptical of Superhuman’s commitment to privacy and safety after reading the last article, you should probably be even more skeptical after these changes. The company’s efforts demonstrate a desire to tamp down liability and damage to their brand, but they do not show an understanding of the core problem: you should not build software that surreptitiously collects data on people in a way that would surprise and frighten them.

Superhuman is Spying on You » Mike Industries

A really excellent analysis by Mike of a dark pattern in the Superhuman email app.

That’s right. A running log of every single time you have opened my email, including your location when you opened it. Before we continue, ask yourself if you expect this information to be collected on you and relayed back to your parent, your child, your spouse, your co-worker, a salesperson, an ex, a random stranger, or a stalker every time you read an email.

Exactly! This violates the principle of least surprise. Also, it’s just plain wrong.

Amazingly though, Mike has been getting pushback from guys on Twitter (and it’s always guys) who don’t think this is a big deal.

Anyway, read the whole thing—it’s fair, balanced, and really well written.